Homo (genus)

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Homo (genus)

Homo is the genus

Genus

A genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the classification of living and fossil organisms. The taxonomic ranks are domain , kingdom , phylum, class , order , family , genus, and species....
that includes modern humans and their close relatives. The genus is estimated to be about 2.5 million years old, evolving from Australopithecine

Australopithecine

The term australopithecine refers to two very closely related genus within the Hominina subtribe of the Hominini tribe . They appeared in the Pliocene:...
ancestors with the appearance of Homo habilis
Homo habilis

Homo habilis is a species of the genus Homo , which lived from approximately 2.5 million to at least 1.6 million years ago at the beginning of the Pleistocene....
. Appearance of Homo coincides with the first evidence of stone tool

Stone tool

A stone tool is, in the most cave general sense, any tool made of Rock . Although stone-tool-dependent cultures exist even today, most stone tools are associated with prehistoric societies that no longer exist....
s (the Oldowan industry), and thus by definition with the beginning of the Lower Paleolithic

Lower Paleolithic

The Lower Paleolithic is the earliest subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age. It spans the time from around 1 E13 ss ago when the first evidence of craft and use of stone tools by Hominidaes appears in the current archaeological record, until around 1 E12 s ago when important evolutionary and technological changes ushered in the Mi...
.

All species except Homo sapiens (modern humans) are extinct.

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Homo is the genus

Genus

Australopithecine

Stone tool

Lower Paleolithic

All species except Homo sapiens (modern humans) are extinct. Homo neanderthalensis, traditionally considered the last surviving relative, died out 24,000 years ago while a recent discovery suggests that another species, Homo floresiensis
Homo floresiensis

Homo floresiensis is a possible species in the genus Homo , remarkable for its small body and brain and for its survival until relatively recent times....
, may have lived as recently as 12,000 years ago.

A minority of zoologists consider that the two species of chimpanzee

Chimpanzee

Chimpanzee, sometimes colloquially known as a chimp, is the common name for the two Extant taxon species of ape in the genus Pan where the Congo River forms the boundary between the native habitat of the two species:...
s (usually treated in the genus Pan), and maybe the gorilla

Gorilla

Gorillas are the largest of the living primates. They are ground-dwelling herbivores that inhabit the forests of Africa. Gorillas are divided into two species and either four or five subspecies....
s (usually treated in the genus Gorilla) should also be included in the genus based on genetic similarities (however such arguments seem to be coming from pro-chimpanzee-rights activists rather than from a clear scientific perspective). Most scientists argue that chimpanzees and gorillas have too many anatomical differences between themselves and humans to be part of Homo. Given the large number of morphological similarities exhibited, Homo is closely related to several extinct hominin genera, most notably Kenyanthropus, Paranthropus
Paranthropus

The robust australopithecines, members of the extinct hominin genus Paranthropus , were bipedal hominins that probably descended from the gracile australopithecine hominins ....
and Australopithecus
Australopithecus

The genus Australopithecus is a genus of extinction hominids, made up of the gracile australopiths, and formerly also included their larger relatives, the robust australopiths ....
. , no taxon

Taxon

A taxon or taxonomic unit is a name designating an organism or a group of organisms. In biological nomenclature according to Carl Linnaeus, a taxon is assigned a taxonomic rank and can be placed at a particular level in a systematic hierarchy reflecting evolutionary relationships....
is universally accepted as the origin of the radiation of Homo.

Naming

The word homo is Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
, in the original sense of "human being", or "person". The word "human

Human

A human being, also human or man, is a member of a species of bipedalism primates in the family Hominidae . Mitochondrial DNA evidence indicates that modern humans originated in east Africa about 200,000 years ago....
" itself is from Latin humanus, an adjective cognate to homo, both thought to derive from a Proto-Indo-European word

Proto-Indo-European language

The Proto-Indo-European language is the unattested, linguistic reconstruction common ancestor of the Indo-European languages, spoken by the Proto-Indo-Europeans....
reconstructed as "earth". Cf. Hebrew adam
Adam (name)

People with the given name Adam* Adam, Biblical patriarch* Adam of Ebrach , German abbot and historian* Adam , stage name of Mohd Aizam Mat Saman...
, meaning "human", cognate to adamah, meaning "ground". (And cf. Latin humus, meaning "soil" and Slavic ????? meaning "land, earth".)

Species

Although the rest of the above table is by species, a third name after a species epithet denotes a variety within a species. In other words, Homo sapiens is a single species of which Homo sapiens sapiens and Homo sapiens idaltu are both varieties. Nevertheless, the Variety Homo sapiens idaltu is extinct. Therefore, not only is Homo sapiens the only surviving species of humans, but Homo sapiens sapiens is the only surviving variety of Homo sapiens.

Species status of Homo rudolfensis, H. ergaster, H. georgicus, H. antecessor, H. cepranensis, H. rhodesiensis and H. floresiensis remains under debate. H. heidelbergensis and H. neanderthalensis are closely related to each other and have been considered to be subspecies

Subspecies

In biology, subspecies is the taxonomic rank immediately subordinate to a species. A subspecies is a taxonomic group which is less distinct than the Common descent or species from which it originates....
of H. sapiens, but analysis of mitochondrial DNA

Mitochondrial DNA

Mitochondrial DNA is the DNA located in organelles called mitochondrion. Most other DNA present in eukaryotic organisms is found in the cell nucleus....
from Homo neanderthalensis fossils shows that H. neanderthalensis is genetically closer to chimpanzees than H. sapiens is, thereby suggesting that H. sapiens is the more derived of the two.

Homo (genus)

Naming

Species

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